KIFM (AM)

KIFM
City Sacramento
Broadcast area Northern California
Branding ESPN 1320
Frequency 1320 kHz
Repeater(s) 107.9-2 KDND-HD2
First air date April 12, 1945 (as KCRA, although KIFM's call letters were first assigned in 1968)
Format Sports
Power 5,000 watts
Class B
Facility ID 67848
Transmitter coordinates 38°38′11″N 121°33′09″W / 38.63639°N 121.55250°W / 38.63639; -121.55250 (day)
38°42′42″N 121°19′44″W / 38.71167°N 121.32889°W / 38.71167; -121.32889 (night)
Callsign meaning former call letters used in San Diego on 98.1 FM (now KXSN)
Former callsigns KCRA (1945-1978)
KGNR (1978-1990)
KCTC (1990-2016)
Former frequencies 1340 kc. (1945-1947)
Affiliations ESPN Radio
Owner Entercom
(Entercom License, LLC)
Sister stations KDND, KKDO, KRXQ, KSEG, KUDL
Webcast Listen Live
Website espn1320.net

KIFM (1320 AM) is a radio station in West Sacramento, California, that has been affiliated with ESPN Radio since February 2007. It has separate transmitter sites for daytime and night operations. Owned by Entercom, its studios are located in North Highlands (with a Sacramento address).

Previously, KIFM was known as KCTC, which has had a history in the Sacramento market as both an FM and AM station. Since it was founded as the former, we will put this history in proper perspective.

KCTC as an FM

The KCTC call letters first came to Sacramento in September 1968 when Kelly Broadcasting changed their FM station's call sign from its original KCRA-FM to KCTC. KCTC's glory years were in the 70s, broadcasting a variant of the "Beautiful Music" format which they called "the California Sound" (with its occasional vocals in each 15-minute set). Notable personalities on KCTC included Jay Augustine and former 1240 KROY rock jock Terry Nelson, who did mornings on KCTC for a time in the early 80s. The format continued until 1989, when KCTC ceased broadcasting as a "beautiful music" station to become KYMX, a soft rock/adult contemporary station. In turn, the KCTC call letters moved to AM 1320, where for years it was an adult standards station as part of the Music Of Your Life network.

KCTC the AM station

KCTC as we know today has its roots in an AM station whose development began on November 7, 1944 (though some accounts say November 9), when Central Valleys Broadcasting Company (CVBC) was granted a construction permit for a new AM station in Sacramento. CVBC partners were: advertising agency owner Ewing C. Kelly (33%), dairy owner C. Vernon Hansen (33%), and bakery owner David R. McKinley (33%). This new AM station went on the air April 12, 1945 at 1340 AM with the call sign KCRA, a 250-watt, daytime-only station with offices in the National Capital Bank Building, 7th and J Streets in Sacramento.

As a sidenote, the KCRA call sign was actually a mistake: the new station was intended to have the call letters "KRCA," after NBC's (the network of which the new station would be an affiliate) parent company RCA, but when the original license was typed at the FCC in 1945, the two middle letters were erroneously flipped. For some reason, the error was never corrected.

After 2 years as a 250-watt daytimer at 1340 AM, KCRA was granted another construction permit on May 5, 1947, this time for a move to 1320 AM as well as to begin nighttime broadcasting with a directional antenna system, and to increase power to 1,000 watts both day and night. KCRA would also move its transmitter site at this time from its original location just north of 27th and A Streets on the south bank of the American River to its current daytime transmitter facility near San Juan Road in Natomas.

October 1948 saw some changes behind the scenes at KCRA: CVBC partner David McKinley sells his interest in the company. Remaining partner Vernon Hansen sells half of his interest to his brother Gerald. Ownership of CVBC becomes: Ewing Kelly, President/General Manager (50%), Vernon Hansen, VP (25%), and Gerald Hansen, Secretary/Treasurer (25%). Also in that month, CVBC would change their DBA to "KCRA, Inc."

On January 30, 1951, KCRA was granted an upgrade in power from 1 kW day and night to 5 kW day, 1 kW night, subject to possible interference from grant of pending application from 1st adjacent 1310 KWBR in Oakland, doing same upgrade with their facilities.

In 1959, the same year that construction started on the candelabra tower in Walnut Grove that KCRA-TV would share with two other TV stations, a rather ambitious (albeit ill-fated) attempt was begun by KCRA to move its transmitter site once again, this time to Dillard Road in Wilton, to change frequency from 1320 to 1030 AM, and to upgrade power from 5kW to 50kW, all in one fell swoop. In October 1962, Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. would ask the FCC to deny KCRA’s application on the grounds that such a grant would adversely affect the use of future higher power by two of its stations: WBZ in Boston (1030 AM) and KDKA in Pittsburgh (1020 AM). The application was dismissed in June 1964.

Not much information is available on programming, formats, or personalities heard on KCRA down through the decades. Names that are known are local bandleader Bill Rase, first a DJ on KCRA radio, then a personality on both KCRA radio and Channel 3 when KCRA-TV went on the air in 1955. In October 1963, Jerry Grisham would resign as Operations Manager of KSBY-TV in San Luis Obispo to become KCRA's program director. Norm Hankoff was another KCRA DJ who would move over to the sales department in 1963 before leaving KCRA altogether to accept the General Manager's position at South Lake Tahoe's KTHO in September 1966. In later years, the voices of Brian Kennedy, Larry Page, Bob Whitten and Mary Jane Popp, to name just a few, would also modulate the KCRA signal.

To provide an idea of competition for KCRA, the Sacramento AM dial in the mid-1950s consisted of KROY (CBS) 1240, KCRA (NBC) 1320, KGMS 1380, KXOA (MBS) 1470, and KFBK (ABC) 1530 (Owned by McClatchy Enterprises, also owner of the Sacramento Bee)(c.f. Sacramento Bee Radio Logs of the mid-'50s). Stockton station KGDM would change call letters in 1957 to KRAK, then in 1962, be re-located from Stockton to Sacramento, increasing power from 5kW to 50kW, with offices and studios in the Senator Hotel.

From 1955 to 1978, KCRA was co-owned with TV Channel 3 KCRA-TV and in the '70s was known as KCRA Newsradio 132 while still under ownership of Kelly Broadcasting. Before its sale to Entercom, KCTC was owned by Tribune Broadcasting of Chicago, owners of WGN and the Chicago Tribune, from 1978 to 1996. For a time under the Tribune ownership (1978-1989), 1320 AM was known as KGNR Newsradio 132. In the early 1970s, prior to Tribune, 1320 KCRA was Sacramento's home for the syndicated "American Top 40" program with Casey Kasem; a September 1971 broadcast of the show mentions KCRA as an affiliate, as does a broadcast of the syndicated program from December 1974. As aforementioned, in 1989, KCTC moved from its former FM position to its current home at 1320 AM.

On November 1, 2005, KCTC changed formats, dropping the well-rated Music Of Your Life format to become an Air America affiliate, after crosstown rival KSAC, "Talk City 1240 AM," dropped its Air America affiliation. This was a rare instance where two liberal talk stations existed in the same radio market.

However, KCTC's website announced on February 15, 2007, that AM 1320 would no longer carry Air America programs, and also would not retain Enid Goldstein or The Morning Retort with Scott and Sims. The site announced that Monday, February 26, KCTC will become ESPN 1320, carrying the complete sports programming of the ESPN radio network. This move would make KCTC Sacramento's first 24/7 Sports radio station, rivaling KHTK AM 1140 which, although billed "Sports 1140," also featured some non-sports shows - notably The Don and Mike Show from Washington, D.C.

Since February 25, 2007, 1320 AM has aired ESPN Radio programming.

On April 28, 2016, KCTC changed call letters to KIFM, former call letters that were used on 98.1 FM in San Diego, as part of a warehousing move by owner Entercom (that station concurrently changed call letters to KXSN as part of a format change).

External links

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